This Week: Supreme Court Intervention, Birth Tourism Crackdown & Another Trump Appellate Victory
This week's top legal developments include a halted prosecution in Louisiana, renewed federal efforts to combat birth tourism fraud, and a significant Third Circuit ruling.
In this week’s Lawsplainer, a corrupt grand jury investigation into Louisiana’s Republican Attorney General – furthered by a judge who closed the proceedings in violation of Louisiana law – has been shut down by the Louisiana Supreme Court. The Department of Justice has mobilized U.S. Attorneys across the nation to combat birth tourism fraud. And the Third Circuit has thrown out a federal district court’s ruling that the Trump Administration must re-install liberal signs and displays from federal properties.
Source: iStock Images
Louisiana Supreme Court rejects grand jury abuse
In an order issued July 3, 2026, the Louisiana Supreme Court has stayed the criminal prosecution of the State’s Republican attorney general, Liz Murrill.
Murrill was prosecuted for her efforts to defend a recently enacted state law that abolished the office of Orleans Parish Criminal District Court. The indictment alleges she threatened to retaliate against political figures in Orleans Parish – stemming from her warnings to Orleans Parish leadership that “their attempt to install a competing Orleans Parish clerk of court triggers serious consequences under Louisiana’s usurper laws.”
The Louisiana Supreme Court noted that the “indictment appears to turn the law on its head and flows from what appear to be extraordinary procedural defects and improprieties.” Although Louisiana law requires grand jury returns to occur in “open court,” the judge overseeing the matter closed the court and reporters were “handcuffed and removed from these otherwise public proceedings.” Additionally, the Court noted that the special prosecutor appointed to the case had a significant conflict of interest that precluded her involvement in the matter.
Not only has Louisiana’s Governor Jeff Landry promised to pardon Murrill, if necessary, but he has also directed the Louisiana State Police to investigate the grand jury improprieties. Our view: Landry is a fighter and a friend.
Source: Ken Cendero
DOJ memo: birth tourism fraud will be prosecuted
As we discussed last week, the Supreme Court issued its ruling that birthright citizenship is guaranteed to the children of illegal aliens and those temporarily present in the United States.
In response, the Trump Department of Justice has issued a memo that directs “all United States Attorneys and the Criminal Division to work with the Department of Homeland Security to prioritize the investigation and prosecution of birth tourism schemes.”
These birth tourism schemes assist pregnant women in obtaining fraudulent visas and coach their clients on hiding pregnancies from immigration officials – all in violation of a number of federal statutes. In one of the larger birth tourism cases prosecuted during President Trump’s first term, Chinese nationals living in the United States made millions by falsifying visa information and training pregnant customers to avoid detection by U.S. customs.
And currently, on the Southern Border, one Texas hospital is advertising “birth packages” – aiming to themselves profit from birth tourism.
Source: Right Angle News Network on X.
On July 7, 2026, Texas Governor Greg Abbott directed the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to investigate this hospital’s advertisement “to foreign nationals in an apparent effort to profit from securing United States citizenship for their children.”
While the Supreme Court has dramatically limited how these immigration issues can be solved, at least the Trump Administration and border states like Texas are going on offense and targeting those who allow birth tourism to flourish.
Source: Getty Images
Third Court: Trump can remove liberal signs from federal properties
Back in June, an activist federal district court judge concluded that the Trump Administration’s removal of signs and exhibits that demonstrated liberal points of view from federal properties was unlawful. That judge also ordered the Trump Administration to restore the signs and exhibits, reasoning that the removals were “contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious.”
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals has vacated that ruling, holding that the district court “lacked jurisdiction” over a number of counts alleged in the City of Philadelphia’s complaint. The Third Circuit noted that the Administrative Procedure Act does not permit the courts to review the primary violations of law that Philadelphia claimed. It further observed that Philadelphia “does not have any statutory, property, or contractual rights that empower it to curate the exhibits in the President’s House.”
This is yet another appeals court win by the Trump Administration. Around the country, liberal district court judges have flouted the law to impose their political preferences and to invalidate lawful actions by the Administration. Credit to those appeals courts that have ended such nonsense.